Get behind safety month activities

Every October, Safe Work Australia and the state and territory work health and safety regulators run a campaign to highlight the importance of managing health and safety in our workplaces.  

This year’s theme for Safe Work Month is Know Safety, Work Safely.  

Ai Group encourages all employers to get involved in events run by the regulators and to use their resources to spark conversations about what health and safety looks like in your workplace and identify if there are opportunities for improvement.  

Key questions you might like to ask in your business include: 

• Do the most senior people in our business understand the key hazards and risks in the workplace and the risk controls we have in place to ensure we eliminate or minimise risks so far as is reasonably practicable? 
• Do we have active and effective ways to consult with workers on work health and safety issues?   

There are many ways to set up your own activities. You could:   

• talk to your workers to find out what issues they want to raise awareness on in the workplace; 
• identify the business’ top critical risk and focus on an activity in this area to educate employees. For example,  if you have a warehouse, you may like to focus on traffic management and bring your workers together to look for opportunities to improve safety in loading/unloading areas; 
• review your safety progress for this year in your H&S Committee and start discussions on what you would like to focus on in the new year. 

 Ai Group offers a variety of health and safety resources for members including:

• Raising awareness on hazards
• Education and Training — Business Operations and Improvement 
• Public Safety & Workers’ Compensation training sessions  
• Health and Safety Resource Centre 
• Member Advices

Some awareness-raising resources to reinforce the Know Safety, Work Safely message include:   

• Quit Smoking 
• Better Mental Health 

“Safety in the workplace affects everyone,” says Tracey Browne, Ai Group’s Manager National Safety & Workers Comp Policy and Membership Services. 

“The more you get people involved, the more they will embrace the Know Safety, Work Safely message.” 

Click here for more information about Safe Work Month.